What is your opinion of the Summerset chapter PTS being invite-only and under NDA again?

Saturn

starkerealm wrote: »

Saturn wrote: »

Violynne wrote: »

Saturn wrote: »

In their most recent news post to the site, ZOS confirmed that the PTS for Summerset will be a closed test accessed only by those invited, and with an NDA agreement, like they did with the Morrowind chapter last year.

Maybe my memory is off a bit, but wasn't this a limited timed event before they opened the PTS for everyone?

I don't mind a closed invite. ZoS seems to focus on getting all types of players for feedback, but the real "meat" comes when PTS is opened for all.

I recall Morrowind got several patches once it was opened up, after they "patched" glaring issues the closed version got.

Again, this is from memory, and it's been a year.

As I recall the NDA closed Morrowind PTS lasted until release. Which is why the embargo was lifted on release day and you had a thousand Morrowind videos made public on YouTube all at once.

Yeah, in this case, the primary embargo was just in step with press outlets. So, that's why there was mechanical information already coming out almost two weeks ago. So, in general, information is a lot more open. ZOS is more concerned about spoilers at this point, as in actually undermining the surprise at finding new things or following the story, than they are about balance changes.

Saturn wrote: »

GatheredMyst wrote: »

Thinking that an NDA, something that is used for a lot of beta tests in a lot of MMO's, is just to "hide the bad news", is extremely paranoid, IMO.

@GatheredMyst
That was literally what happened last year though. No negative information could get out, and thus people who pre-ordered it weren't fully informed about what they were getting. I know a lot of people who quit after Morrowind's release and were very upset about the nerf bomb being dropped on them out of nowhere. Granted that won't be an issue this time around, but it was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the words NDA (and then missed the "story-specific" part, lol). I don't think it's paranoia if it's based in prior experience from the same company. And let's be honest, ZOS isn't as transparent as they claim, and a lot of their shady business models still persist despite community outrage, so it's no surprise they care more about revenue streams than customer satisfaction, and thus will do what they can to prevent any potential losses. It's a smart business move, sure, but it doesn't exactly scream "transparency". So no, I don't believe it's paranoia.

Yeah. I wasn't there for last year's testing. (I mean, the PTS testing, sure, but not the closed round before that.) From what I've been told, this was a lot more open to feedback than that one was. I think I've already said, "anyone who's feeling some anxiety after last year is justified," but I think the team has actually taken a step back and is approaching this a bit differently.

To be fair, as I recall, a lot of the negative publicity last year was centered around complaints that the warden would be P2W, sight unseen. This year, we're getting some of that from the jewelry crafting paywall, but it's not the same thing. There was also a glitch last year, where some people who didn't have PC accounts were granted PTS access. This, unfortunately, overlapped with a subsection of the community who'd been crying the loudest about P2W on the public boards, and they immediately set about starting fires on the PTS boards, and spilling info back over onto the general boards, while painting everything in the worst possible light to support their agenda. It was a mess.

Also, to be fair, a lot of people left because of the nerfs, not because of how ZOS handled them. I mean, the handling was a contributing factor, but the issue was the nerfs themselves, and how that affected gameplay. The handling of PTS testing just aggravated that wound.

@starkerealm
Yeah, it's good to see the NDA just being story-specific and hopefully they'll be more open to criticism this time around. I think if they had listened to the feedback last year, and done something about it properly, then it could have prevented a lot of people from leaving. Granted, most of those people have returned again, so it's not like it had a huge impact on the game's health.

I'm definitely not interested in being outraged over nothing, but I think it's fair to say that the way they handled last year's "closed beta" made me lose a lot of faith in them. I hope they can't prove that they actually care about their community this time around, as opposed to just getting in new players for some easy money at the expense of their actual audience.

starkerealm

I think it is a good idea that it is a closed test with an NDA

Saturn wrote: »

Yeah, it's good to see the NDA just being story-specific and hopefully they'll be more open to criticism this time around. I think if they had listened to the feedback last year, and done something about it properly, then it could have prevented a lot of people from leaving. Granted, most of those people have returned again, so it's not like it had a huge impact on the game's health.

Loss of players matters. I mean, at a very abstract level, MMOs are a highly evolved chatroom system. The game itself is cool, but the community is what keeps a game going for years, when most of the industry struggles to keep a title relevant for more than six months.

But, yeah, the NDA is (almost) entirely focused on spoilers this time out. I think the the PTS one is just going to be story specific stuff. So if you're running the main quest, don't tell everyone what you discover. It might also extend to not spoiling specific enemy encounter mechanics, but I'm honestly less sure if that'll be in the PTS NDA or not.

Saturn wrote: »

I'm definitely not interested in being outraged over nothing, but I think it's fair to say that the way they handled last year's "closed beta" made me lose a lot of faith in them. I hope they can't prove that they actually care about their community this time around, as opposed to just getting in new players for some easy money at the expense of their actual audience.

Yeah, like I said, I can't fault you for that. I don't think they were acting maliciously, but I can't fault you for feeling burned by that round of testing.